Теоретическая фонетика английского языка (Теоретическая фонетика английского языка М.А. Соколова, И.С.Тихонова, Р.М.Тихонова, Е.Л.Фрейдина. - Дубна; Феникс+, 2010. - 192 с.), страница 9

Alternationsare observed in one and the same morphological units, in a morpheme, andactualize the phonemic structure of the morpheme. Thus, the phonemiccontent of the morpheme is constant. The supporters of the morphologicaltrend defme the phoneme as follows: «3TO .pYHKUI10HaJIhHaH .poHem'fe­CKaH e,lJ,I1HMua, rrpe,lJ,CTaBJIeHHaH PMOM rr03HUHOHHO 'fepe,11,YIOlIJ,l1XCH3BYKOB)} (I1aHoB, 1979: 107).The notion of «.poHemqeCKHH PM», suggested by R. f. Avanesov, dem­onstrates positionally determined realizations of the phoneme. Positionallyalternating sounds are grouped into one phoneme even if they are similar orhave common features (that is common allophones) with other phonemes.The Russian preposition «c» + noun may have the following realizations:c KOJIeHc TMMornen:c faJIen:c,lJ;HMOH[c][c'][3][3']c illypoH [rn] c )KeHen: [)K] c qYKOM [rn:] 34Chapter T.

The Functional Aspect of Speech SoundsIn the morphological conception the alternations of the phonemes arenot analyzed apart from the morphemes, as form and content make a dia­lectical unity. The phonetic system is not isolated from the grammatical andlexical structure of the language, and the unity between the form and thecontent cannot be destroyed. Yet as an answer to the problem it is not en­tirely satisfactory since ordinary speakers are in no doubt that the soundthat occurs in the above-mentioned combinations is the preposition «c».St. Petersburg phonological school (L. R. Zinder, M.

I. Matysevitch) as­sert that the phoneme is independent of the morpheme. SO [A] in «Bo,Ua»belongs to the [a] phoneme while [0] in «BO,UhI» to the [0] phoneme; [c] inthe word «MOP03» belongs to the [c] morpheme and [3] in «MOP03bI» - tothe [3] phoneme respectively. The supporters of this conception claim thatthe phoneme cannot lose any of its distinctive features.As far as the English language is concerned, the neutral sound [a] in theword "activity" and the sound [;:e] in the words "act", "active" is the [;:e]phoneme. It seems that according to this point of view the unity betweenthe form and the content is destroyed, thus phonology is isolated from mor­phology.In conclusion we have to admit that the described conceptions are arbi­trary, none is ideal.

The morphological conception seems complicated, butappears to be effective for theory and practice.1.5. The System of English PhonemesIn this section we are going to give a brief overview of the problemswhich scholars face when trying to describe the English sounds from thefunctional point of view. We shall try to explain what is understood by thequality of a sound, what articulatory characteristics may be considered theconstituents of quality and to determine which of them are phonologicallyrelevant.There are two major classes of sounds traditionally distinguished byphoneticians in any language. They are termed consonants and vowels.

Thedistinction is based mainly on auditory effect. Consonants are known tohave voice and noise combined, while vowels are sounds consisting ofvoiceonly. From the articulatory point ofview the difference is due to the work ofspeech organs. In the production of vowels no obstruction is made. In theproduction ofconsonants various obstructions are made.

So consonants arecharacterized by the so-called close articulation, i. e. by a complete, partial1.5. The System of English Phonemes35or intermittent blockage of the air passage by a speech organ. As a resultconsonants are sounds which have noise as their indispensable and mostdefining characteristic.Now we shall consider each class of sounds independently.1.5.1. The system of consonantsOn the articulatory level each consonant may be identified by statingtwo general facts about it:1) what sort of articulatory posture it is formed by;2) whereabout in the vocal tract it is produced.Besides these major characteristics the particular quality ofa consonantmay depend on a lot of factors, i.

e. by what articulatory organ (or organs)an obstruction is made, how the vocal cords work at the moment of produc­tion, what cavity is used as a resonator, what is the force of articulatoryfort and many others. So in our view the particular quality of a consonantwould be best thought of as a complex bundle of features. Each sound isknown to have three aspects: articulatory; acoustic and auditory; and there­fore can be studied on three levels. For the sake of analysis each aspect canbe considered and described independently, though it is obvious that thereis no sharp dividing line between them.Trying to work out a classification ofsuch complex units as speech soundsone should specifY those properties ofsounds which are relevant to the subjectunder discussion, so the attempts to classifY sounds should have a theoreticalfoundation.

Besides, each classification should not only aim at linguistic de­scription but should be applicable in teaching a language. Therefore the clas­sification should include if possible both the principal relevant features andthe ones that are redundant from the phonological point of view; but are im­portant for the articulation ofthe sound. Here we should say that the phono­logical description ofsounds will be made in terms ofarticulatory leveLIt is suggested that the first and basic principle of classification is thedegree of noise. It leads to dividing English consonants into two biggroups:A - noise consonants;B - sonorants.It is easy to see that the term "degree of noise" belongs to auditory levelanalysis.

But it is generally acknowledged that there is an intrinsic con­nection between articulatory and auditory aspects of describing speechsounds, so that sometimes it is impossible to account for the former except36Chapter 1. The Functional Aspect of Speech Soundsin terms of the latter. In the above mentioned case it is the terms of auditorylevel that defme the characteristic more adequately.Sonorants are consonants that phoneticians traditionally have a lot of ar­guments about. Sonorants are sounds that differ greatly from all other conso­nants of the language.

This is due to the fact that in their production the airpassage is fairly wide, much wider than in the production of noise conso­nants. As a result the auditory effect is tone, not noise. This peculiarity of ar­ticulation makes sonorants sound more like vowels than consonants. Acous­tically sonorants are opposed to an other consonants because they arecharacterized by a sharply defined formant structure and the total energy ofmost of them is very high.

However, on functional grounds according to theirposition in the syllable sonorants are included in the consonantal category.The great articulatory and acoustic difference of noise consonants andsonorants could be very well relied upon as having classificatory value. Thephonological relevance of this factor (the degree of noise) could be provedby the following oppositions:[berk - merk][vi:l- wi:l]bake makeveal - wheel(noise consonant - sonorant)(noise consonant sonorant)The manner of the production of noise and the type of obstruction isanother characteristic of English consonants.

On this ground three classesof consonants are distinguished:a) occlusive, in the production of which a complete obstruction isformed;b) constrictive, in the production ofwhich an incomplete obstruction isformed;c) occlusive-constrictive consonants (affricates), in the production ofwhich the obstruction is complete at the beginning of production, then itbecomes incomplete.The phonological relevance of this feature could be exemplified in thefollowing oppositions:[ti:][si: ][si:d] [si:z][ti:z] ­ [tJi:z][si:z] - [si:d3][pefS] - [perd3]tea seaseed ­ seastease ­ cheesecease siegepace - page(occlusive constrictive)(occlusive - constrictive)(occlusive - afIricate)(constrictive - atIricate)(constrictive - affricate)The following scheme might be helpful to understand the system built inaccordance with the above-mentioned order ofarticulatory characteristics:1.5.

The System of English Phonemes37Figure 5consonantssonorantsocclusive­constrictiveThe place ofarticulation is another characteristic ofEnglish consonantswhich we should consider from the phonological point ofview. The place ofarticulation is determined by the active organ of speech against the point ofarticulation. According to this principle the English consonants are classedinto:1) labial; 2) lingual; 3) glottal.

The class of labial consonants is subdivided into: a) bilabial; b) labio­dental, and among the class of lingual consonants three subclasses are dis­tinguished. They are: a) forelingual; b) mediolingual and c) backlingual.The classification of consonants according to this principle is illustratedI he following scheme:Figure 6glottallabio-dentalmediolingualbacklingualThe importance of this characteristic as phonologically relevant couldhe proved by means of a sjmple example.

In the system of English conso­Chapter 1. The Functional Aspect of Speech Sounds38nants there could be found oppositions based on the active organ of speechand the place of obstruction:[p~nJ- [t~nJ[walJ ­ [lalJ[plk] [klk][les J - [jes][del] ­ [gel][salJ - [hal][fi:t] - [si:t]pan-tanwhy liepick- kickless yesday-gaysigh - highfeet - seat(bilabial ­ forelingual)(bilabial forelingual)(bilabial- backlingual)(forelingual mediolingual)(forelingual- backlingual)(forelingual glottal)(labio-dental- fore lingual)Another sound property is voiced - voiceless characteristic which de­pends on the work ofthe vocal cords. It has long been believed that from thearticulatory point of view the distinction between such pairs of consonantsas [p, b], [t, d], [k, g], [s, z], [f, v], [I, 3], [tf, d3J is based on the absence orpresence of the vibrations of the vocal cords or on the absence or presenceof voice or tone component. However, a considerable body of experimentalwork on physiological and acoustic aspects ofthese sounds showed that thisis not the only difference between them.

It is obvious now that there is alsoenergy difference. All voiced consonants are weak (lenis) and all voicelessconsonants are strong (fortis). Now there is a considerable controversy con­cerning the phonetic feature involved in the above-mentioned oppositions.In the intervocalic position, like in "latter - ladder" the voicing differenceis important, since it is the distinctive feature of the consonants.